You probably already know that blood glucose imbalances and poor gut health can lead to hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s disease, but do you know what part stress plays on your thyroid’s health?
Here’s a clue: stress is one the biggest influences on your adrenal glands, and the health of your adrenal glands directly impacts the health of your thyroid gland.
What Do the Adrenal Glands Do?
You might have heard of the adrenal glands but aren’t exactly sure what they do or even where they’re located.
Your adrenals are two walnut-shaped glands that sit on top of your kidneys. These glands are in control of secreting important hormones in the body like cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine. This trilogy of hormones regulates the body’s response …show more content…
These, along with any other emotional challenge that is a part of dealing with every day modern life puts stress on the adrenals and forces them to work overtime, churning out these “fight or flight” hormones.
But the same factors that affect the thyroid directly, like blood sugar swings, gut health, environmental toxins and inflammation also cause the adrenals to pump out more stress hormones. In this way, anything physical or emotional that disturbs your body’s natural homeostasis has the ability to negatively impact the health and functioning of your adrenal glands.
Symptoms of Poor Adrenal Health
Adrenal stress is very common because nearly every human being deals with at least one (but most likely more) of the physical and emotional factors I’ve already listed. Symptoms of adrenal stress are diverse and widespread because the adrenal glands affect every single system in the body.
Some of the most common symptoms of poor adrenal health are:
• Fatigue
• …show more content…
Stressed adrenal glands can cause hypothyroid symptoms even when your thyroid gland is working properly. In these cases, treating the thyroid directly is ineffective and unnecessary, as it’s the adrenal glands that need to be treated to improve thyroid function. A simple blood test will be able to tell your doctor whether your thyroid, adrenals, or both are not working properly.
But the adrenals can impact your thyroid health directly in multiple ways:
1) Adrenal Stress Messes with Your HPA Axis
The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is a complex network of interactions between the hypothalamus, the pituitary and the adrenal glands. This network regulates numerous functions in the body such as temperature, digestion, immune system, mood, sexuality and metabolism.
Myriad studies have shown that chronic adrenal stress depresses hypothalamic and pituitary function. [1] These two important organs directly affect thyroid hormone production, so anything that disrupts this HPA axis will also suppress thyroid function.
2) Adrenal Stress Reduces T4 to T3 Conversion
Over 90% of the hormone produced by your thyroid gland is T4, which is inactive and must be converted into T3 before it can be used by the cells. When your adrenal glands are stressed, it negatively impacts your body’s ability to convert T4 into T3.
Here’s a clue: stress is one the biggest influences on your adrenal glands, and the health of your adrenal glands directly impacts the health of your thyroid gland.
What Do the Adrenal Glands Do?
You might have heard of the adrenal glands but aren’t exactly sure what they do or even where they’re located.
Your adrenals are two walnut-shaped glands that sit on top of your kidneys. These glands are in control of secreting important hormones in the body like cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine. This trilogy of hormones regulates the body’s response …show more content…
These, along with any other emotional challenge that is a part of dealing with every day modern life puts stress on the adrenals and forces them to work overtime, churning out these “fight or flight” hormones.
But the same factors that affect the thyroid directly, like blood sugar swings, gut health, environmental toxins and inflammation also cause the adrenals to pump out more stress hormones. In this way, anything physical or emotional that disturbs your body’s natural homeostasis has the ability to negatively impact the health and functioning of your adrenal glands.
Symptoms of Poor Adrenal Health
Adrenal stress is very common because nearly every human being deals with at least one (but most likely more) of the physical and emotional factors I’ve already listed. Symptoms of adrenal stress are diverse and widespread because the adrenal glands affect every single system in the body.
Some of the most common symptoms of poor adrenal health are:
• Fatigue
• …show more content…
Stressed adrenal glands can cause hypothyroid symptoms even when your thyroid gland is working properly. In these cases, treating the thyroid directly is ineffective and unnecessary, as it’s the adrenal glands that need to be treated to improve thyroid function. A simple blood test will be able to tell your doctor whether your thyroid, adrenals, or both are not working properly.
But the adrenals can impact your thyroid health directly in multiple ways:
1) Adrenal Stress Messes with Your HPA Axis
The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is a complex network of interactions between the hypothalamus, the pituitary and the adrenal glands. This network regulates numerous functions in the body such as temperature, digestion, immune system, mood, sexuality and metabolism.
Myriad studies have shown that chronic adrenal stress depresses hypothalamic and pituitary function. [1] These two important organs directly affect thyroid hormone production, so anything that disrupts this HPA axis will also suppress thyroid function.
2) Adrenal Stress Reduces T4 to T3 Conversion
Over 90% of the hormone produced by your thyroid gland is T4, which is inactive and must be converted into T3 before it can be used by the cells. When your adrenal glands are stressed, it negatively impacts your body’s ability to convert T4 into T3.